Innovation… zoo’s elephant house was designed by Jan to let them roam on the roof

Kasia the elephant was killed immediately, her huge body lying amid the mangled, torn bodies of giraffes, antelopes and apes.

It was September 1939 and Warsaw Zoo bore the full force Nazi bombardment as Poland was invaded.

But in its ruins, the couple who ran the city’s attraction saw a chance to turn its 75 acres of cages and pens into a sanctuary of a different kind.

Between 1940 and 1944 Jan and Antonina Zabinski hid around 300 Jews and underground fighters in the zoo’s enclosures and in their own villa on the grounds under the noses of the Nazis — and all but two survived the war.

Some stayed for days until they could be found forged papers to flee Poland, others for years.

The story has now been turned into a movie, The Zookeeper’s Wife starring Jessica Chastain, as Antonina.

Jessica, 40, said of Antonina: “Not only did she save their lives but she bolstered spirits and fostered hope.

“It really is a story about the goodness in humankind.”

The Christian Zabinskis, together with son Ryszard, who was about eight at the start of the project, performed their rescues under constant threat of being discovered by the Germans, who had an army unit stationed at the zoo.

Initially, after the bombing and the outbreak of war, Jan — who immediately joined the Polish resistance movement — saw the zoo’s obscure corners and underground chambers as an ideal place to hide weapons.

But the behaviour of a Nazi official after the bombing changed all that.

Lutz Heck was director of the Berlin Zoo and had been a family friend, but was now responsible for all the animal reserves in the Third Reich. He arrived to take his pick of the animals for German zoos.

He often claimed his wife had been the true heroine of the saga, declaring: “Antonina was a housewife, she wasn’t involved in politics or war and was timid.

“Yet despite that she played a major role in saving others and never once complained about the danger.

“From time to time she seemed to shed her own human traits and become a panther or hyena.

“Able to adopt their fighting instinct, she arose as a fearless defender.”

– The Zookeeper’s Wife opens on April 28.

Risking all for others

ALL across Europe brave dissidents risked their lives to protect Jews from Hitler’s Final Solution.

Here we look at some of the other heroes:

OSKAR SCHINDLER: The German industrialist spent millions bribing Nazis so that he could save 1,200 Jews from the death camps. The story of how he kept them safe in his factories was turned into Oscar-winning hit Schindler’s List.

PÈRE MARIE-BENOÎT: French priest helped smuggle 4,000 Jews out of his Nazi-occupied homeland and into Italy, Spain and Switzerland.

FRANK FOLEY: Intelligence officer and passport control staffer at the British Embassy in Berlin saved an estimated 10,000 Jews by issuing them with false documents.

ALBERT GOERING: The younger brother of leading Nazi Hermann, who was Hitler’s deputy and founder of the Gestapo. Businessman Albert hated the Nazis and helped Jewish families escape by forging his brother’s signature. He also sent trucks into concentration camps with requests for labourers, then let those aboard escape. Despite this, after the war he was shunned in Germany because of his name.

SIR NICHOLAS WINTON: London stockbroker played key role in the Kinder- transport, which rescued nearly 10,000 mostly Jewish children from Germany and German-occupied Europe. He personally organised the rescue of 669 children from Czechoslovakia, finding them homes in Britain and arranging their safe passage.